Innovation Day 2022

Felix had the idea for the Rement process at the beginning of his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.
He impressed Prof. Andreas Gerdes with his idea and subsequently built up a team around the approach.
At Rement, Felix forms the bridge between research, development and business development.

Michael Beigl is Professor of Pervasive Computing Systems at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and head of the TECO research laboratory. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Karlsruhe (now KIT). Previously, he was Professor at TU Braunschweig from 2006-2010, Visiting Associate Professor at Hide Tokuda Labs, Keio University, Japan in 2005, and Research Director of TECO, University of Karlsruhe, Germany from 2001-2005. Since 2014, he leads the national competence centre for big data AI, the Smart Data Innovation Lab (SDIL), and the state competence centre for big data AI in Baden-Württemberg, the Smart Data Solution Center (SDSC-BW), and since 2023 is a Co-Spokesperson of the KITHealthTech. His research interests evolve around the fusion of humans and computers, with a special interest in human-computer interaction, wearable sensor/actuator systems, and the fusion of artificial and human intelligence.

Yunus Bulut is an AI researcher at KIT and the founder of Validaitor. His interests include AI safety, responsible AI, AI testing and auditing. He’s an entrepreneur who founded 3 companies before and now he’s promoting AI safety with his new endeavor Validaitor.

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tobias Düser, born in 1979, has been head of the IPEK - Institute of Product Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) since October 2022.

After his studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and subsequent doctorate at IPEK - Institute of Product Engineering, Tobias Düser held various positions within the AVL Group in the field of innovative development and validation methods. In particular, he worked on novel automation and simulation solutions for test benches. Among other things, he was involved in the development of a new business area, the product portfolio and partner network in the area of Advanced Driver Assistant Systems as well as for Automated Driving. He was a member of the global ADAS/AD leadership circle and also intensively involved in global strategy development.

From 2015, he was responsible for the Advanced Solution Lab at AVL and head of the Karlsruhe branch office. In 2020, he additionally assumed global responsibility for ADAS/AD Virtual Testing Solutions. Tobias Düser and his team worked on virtual and XiL-based validation methods for the validation and testing of Advanced Driver Assistant systems as well as for Automated Driving.

Furthermore, he participates in various working groups such as IAMTS or UNECE.

Patric Grauberger received his masters degree in mechanical engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and his Dr.-Ing. degree in the topic of functional modelling with the Contact and Channel Approach at the IPEK – Institute of Product Engineering at the KIT. He currently researches data-driven design research at the IPEK – Institute of Product Engineering and focusses on functional modelling in circular economy.

John Achim Holzhauer, 26, is the founder and Managing Director of Semorai GmbH with offices in Karlsruhe and Heilbronn. His passion for engineering and entrepreneurship began as a child on the family farm and through his father's work in the concrete industry. During his studies in industrial engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he was able to further expand his knowledge in the fields of engineering, IT and business. In positions at Daimler, Bosch and Bertelsmann, as well as in research at the wbk Institut für Produktionstechnik, he developed solutions for the automation and control of production systems, with a focus on artificial intelligence since 2019. With the mission to give engineers more freedom to develop highly innovative solutions for the challenges of our generation, he founded Semorai GmbH in 2022. Within 2 years, the team grew to 14 employees and a close network of 50 other developers. In cooperation with OEMs and suppliers in the automotive, mechanical engineering and medical technology sectors, the team continues to develop its core technology, an AI-based engineer. Semorai's solutions to date include the creation and quality assurance of specifications for OEMs, the automated evaluation of incoming customer inquiries and quotations from suppliers, as well as the gradual automation of FMEA. Further services are currently under development. The team has received various awards for its work, most recently being named one of the most promising AI start-ups in Europe by RISE EUROPE.

Alistair Hudson is the Scientific-Artistic Chairman of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe since April 1, 2023. He succeeds Peter Weibel, who had headed the institution since 1999.

Hudson is a curator and museum director with broad-ranging international experience. He combines contemporary curatorial expertise with a profound knowledge of the relationship between art, technology and society. From 2018 to 2022 he served as director of two museums in Manchester: the Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth. The latter is the art museum of the University of Manchester, where he was also Professor of Useful Art.

In 1994, after completing his studies in art history and fine art, he went to work for the prestigious Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London. From 2000 he served as curator of public projects for the Government Art Collection. From 2004 he was vice director of Grizedale Arts, a ground-breaking art institution and international artists residency programme operating from a farm in England’s Lake District. From 2014 he served as director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where he radically re-invented the museum, working with the residents of the city to give it social purpose.

Alistair Hudson’s concept of a »useful museum« envisions artistic and cultural institutions as centres of social responsibility and transformation. Together with the artist Tania Bruguera he heads the international network Asociación de Arte Útil.

Michael Knapp has been group leader for the field of "Development of scattering methods for material characterization" at the Institute for Applied Materials (IAM-ESS) at KIT since 2011. He received his doctorate in materials science from TU Darmstadt in 2002. From 1997 to 2006, he worked as a beamline scientist on the topic of "B2 Powder Diffraction" at HASYLAB/DESY in Hamburg. From 2006 to 2011 he was "Primary Beamline Scientist" MSPD Beamline at the Synchrotron ALBA in Barcelona and dealt with "Section Head Material Science".

Anjela Mayer is a research associate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, focusing on virtual engineering. She completed her M.Sc. in computer science at KIT, laying a strong foundation in her field.

Since 2020, Anjela has been working at the Institute for Information Management in Engineering (IMI) in the Mechanical Engineering Department of KIT. Her research centers on immersive collaboration environments for distributed teams, especially on asynchronous collaboration in immersive settings. Anjela is currently pursuing her PhD, aiming to advance the use of immersive technologies in digitalized production. Her involvement with the XIRCON project explores the integration of Digital Twins and Extended Reality (XR) to improve manufacturing reconfigurations, demonstrating her commitment to enhancing technology for practical applications.

Robert became enthusiastic about Rement as a spectator at the GROW competition. The industrial engineering graduate has since been responsible for business development, including dialog with the target group, Rement's public image and financial planning.

Dr. Thomas Schneider is Managing Director of Research + Development at TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen SE + Co. KG. Born in Ludwigshafen, he studied mechanical engineering at the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe (KIT) and did his doctorate in the field of electrical engineering materials. Before joining TRUMPF, he held various positions in industry and was a product
development expert at McKinsey.

Maria Francesca Spadea, obtained the PhD degree in Bioengeneering in 2006 from Politecnico di Milano University. In 2007, she moved to University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro where she served as Assistant Professor first, and Associate professor later, within the chair of Bioengineering.  In 2010/2011, she was a visiting scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA), sponsored by a Fulbright Research Scholar Fellowship. In 2023 she joined Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as Full Professor where she currently co-leads the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.

Her research interests are focused on developing hardware and software solutions in the field of Image Guided Diagnosis, Therapy and Surgery, being machine and deep learning the most recent exploited approaches. In the past 15 years, she built a large network of national and international collaborations with Clinical and Academic Institutions as well as private companies, spanning from basic research to translational and applied research.